Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that theLord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.7 Then the eyes of both were opened,and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the coolof the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,cursed are you above all livestockand above all beasts of the field;on your belly you shall go,and dust you shall eatall the days of your life.15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring and her offspring;he shall bruise your head,and you shall bruise his heel.”

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wifeand have eaten of the treeof which I commanded you,‘You shall not eat of it’,cursed is the ground because of you;in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;and you shall eat the plants of the field.19 By the sweat of your faceyou shall eat bread,till you return to the ground,for out of it you were taken;for you are dust,and to dust you shall return.”

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live for ever—”23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Did God Really Say?

‘Did God really say?’ Temptation still whispers this thought into my ear with the breath of a snake. Could a serpent really talk? Was the serpent other than it has now become? Did God really part a sea so that his people could walk through on dry land? Did God really create a fish to swallow a man and spit him up onto the shore? Did God really come to earth and sacrifice himself on a cross of crucifixion? Does anyone come back from the dead? … Did God really say?

Satan slides into the subconscious and hamstrings humanity. We are disarmed by doubt. We are succumbed by curiosity. Why is forbidden fruit withheld from us? Why is belief in another being demanded from us? Why are we slaves in paradise to a master who withholds a freedom to think?

However, breaking from slavery to our Master brings downfall. In choosing independence we choose isolation. In choosing a taste for taboos, we choose to feast on poison. In letting go of faith in God and a written record of miracles and majesty, we embrace the chaos that raged before God spoke. We have undone creation and we have shattered God’s gift of peace. Shame breeds anxiety and anxiety distrust. What once was sure is now deconstructed in waves of confusion, blame, hiding, and regret.

Those who once walked with God will walk new paths. However, the father and mother of mankind lose communion with their maker. Curse replaces bounty. The privilege of serving God is usurped by the vapid service of self. We are slaves now to sin. Death is our companion. Damnation claws icy fingers around the heart of man.

Prayer

How can you see our lack of service and our poor faith and allow us to live? Shame marks our lives. We blame and hide and fight and fly. Oh God, we are sorry for who we have become. We are sorry that we are riddled with doubts. We are sorry for following our sinful desires. Bring us home.

Questions

What was the serpent’s question?

What was Eve’s reply?

What was Adam’s role?

How is the sin of Adam repeated through history?

How can we communicate the reality and devastation of The Fall?

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About Plymothian

I teach at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. My interests include education, biblical studies, and spiritual formation. I have been married to Kelli since 1998 and we have two children, Daryl and Amelia. For recreation I like to run, play soccer, play board games, read and travel.

14 Responses to Genesis 3 Did God Really Say?

1. What was the serpent’s question? “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
2. What was Eve’s reply? She said that she was allowed to eat the fruit of trees in the garden except the tree in the middle of the garden, or else she would die.
3. What was Adam’s role? He took and ate after Eve ate. He seems to be passive and not involved.
4. How is the sin of Adam repeated through history? People have been passive rather than fighting against sin over and over again. The first thought that came to mind was during the Holocaust when the Germans turned their eyes in the other direction. Today, we see it in the passivity toward abortion.
5. How can we communicate the reality and devastation of The Fall? By communicating the depth of God’s love and showing the cross as the only way to redeem what was lost.

1. “Did God actually say”.
2.“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
3. He ate it after Eve in a passive way.
4. People do not stand up to sin or fight against it. They ignore it exists or they choose not to think of it as a sin.
5. I think we have to be willing to show its effects and call ourselves out about it. I have to be able to see sin, its effects in my life, and its potential for absolute destruction when I talk to others. We cannot direct the realities of the fall only to those we seek to minister to without including ourselves because the reality is just as real in our lives.

1. Did God actually say you could not eat from any tree in the garden?
2. We may eat from the fruits of the trees in the garden-just not from thr tree in the midst of the garden.
3. He sinned too, God told him the consequences of his sin.
4. People disobey God and do not trust him.
5. We explain the consequences and what could have been.

1. “Did God actually say ‘you shall not eat from any tree in the garden.'”
2. She gave God’s response, but she changed it a little bit.
3. Adam was very passive in the situation, but he should have helped Eve in the temptation.
4. We all have a tendency to change what God has said and disobey God to meet our new desires.
5. By showing people the devastating effects of the people and telling them how much better it will be in God’s true kingdom.

1.“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
2.“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
3. Adam is silent, but likely present at the temptation. In any case, he listened to his wife and partook equally of the forbidden fruit.
4. We continue to doubt the word of God both intellectually, and practically by our actions.
5.Tell the story. Appeal to the universal recognition that things are not as they should be and the longing we all have for restoration to what was lost.

The serpent challenged Eve and said “Did God really say that?” Eve responded to the serpent by saying “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” Adam’s role was one of silence but also apart of the temptation and sin. The sin of Adam is repeated throughout history in our doubt of God and His will for our lives (that He truly knows what is best for us). To communicate the reality of the Fall, we have to always point people to the cross and humanity’s need for a savior.

1.”Did GOD ACTUALLY SAY?”
2.Eve told the serpent that she could eat from any tree, except for the one in the middle of the garden or she would surely die.
3. Adam, being passive partner went along with whatever Eve said without discerning, and ate the fruit she gave to him.
4.People play the “victim” card and do not fight sin even though some realize the death that is involved. Most people are so passive they turn their cheek and keep living when sin arises.
Bonnehoffer said this:
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil, God will not hold us guiltless, not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act”.
5. By showing people how utterly depraved we are-and showing the amazing Grace which God has offered through His son Jesus Christ.

1. “Did God actually say….???”
2. That they could eat from all the trees in the garden except for the one in the middle.
3. He also sinned by taking of the fruit when it was offered to him.
4. All throughout history, we watch people doing what those before them did. We justify sin because someone else before us did it, so it cannot be THAT bad.
5. We can communicate it just by looking around, and talking about all of the wrong and hurt that is in our world because of it.

1.What was the serpent’s question? “Did God actually say that?”
2.What was Eve’s reply? Eve told that, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
3.What was Adam’s role? Being passive, Adam was silent and ate (sinned).
4.How is the sin of Adam repeated through history? We still disobey God and try to walk unrighteously.
5.How can we communicate the reality and devastation of The Fall? We can lovingly and kindly explain what the consequences will be if we remain in the sin. However, we must point back to Christ Jesus who has revealed Himself with a redemptive work.

1. The serpent asked “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
2. Eve told the serpent that God said she could eat from any tree except the tree in the middle of the garden.
3. Adam followed in Eve’s footsteps and also ate from the tree.
4. We lose communion with God. We are now slaves to sin.
5. We can show people the effects of sin and be honest with how it effects every facet of our lives.

1. What was the serpent’s question? Did God actually say ‘ you shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?
2. What was Eve’s reply? We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden
3. What was Adam’s role? He was to be the leader but he simply accepted the fruit from his wife
4. How is the sin of Adam repeated through history? We often know what we should or should not do but just go along and do what is wrong or let others do what is wrong
5. How can we communicate the reality and devastation of The Fall? We can communicate the reality of the fall by looking at the beauty and wonder of life before the fall and compare/contrast it to life now after the fall

1. “Did God really say…?”
2. She affirmed that God did say they could not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden.
3. Apparently Adam was right there the whole time, and his role should have been to intervene and to not let his wife eat from the tree, but he just stood there and did nothing.
4. “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”- We often know what the right thing is to do in many situations, but we do not do them for our own convenience or just cowardice.
5. Doing our best to understand and communicate what the world was like before the fall and how perfect the relationship between God and man was, and then seeing how much that has all changed. We are completely separated and alienated from God because of it and deserve only his judgment and wrath, but we have a Savior who took all of that upon himself to regenerate us back into a loving relationship with God.

1. Did God really say…?
2. She said that God told them that they could eat of any of the trees in the garden except for the one in the middle. She even went on to say that if they touched it they would surely die.
3. Adam said nothing during the encounter and took the fruit that Eve offered to him,
4. Adam’s sin is repeated throughout history when people stand by and do nothing in the face of sin and temptation.
5. We can communicate the reality and devastation of the Fall by looking at the depravity of the world around us and by pointing people to Jesus who is our only hope.

What was the serpent’s question?
Did God really say that…
What was Eve’s reply?
That they could eat from any tree of the garden except for the one in the middle.
What was Adam’s role?
He was a passive spineless bystander who did not up for what God said. He fell into peer pressure.
How is the sin of Adam repeated through history?
People twist what God says and rebel against him.
How can we communicate the reality and devastation of The Fall?
By using the law to show people that there is no way to be viewed as holy except by grace through faith.